Château de Puymarteau
CastleHidden Treasure
Château de Puymarteau, located in Brantôme (Dordogne), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Castle
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Brantôme, Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 45.3657, 0.6596
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00082405
Completed in 1565, this Périgord dwelling combines a polygonal tower with a spiral staircase, corbelled turrets and a mullioned Renaissance façade - a discreet jewel nestling in the greenery of the Brantôm region.
History
Perched in the Brantôme region, in the heart of the Périgord Vert, Château de Puymarteau embodies the unostentatious elegance of French Renaissance seigneurial architecture in the Dordogne. Far removed from the media-friendly châteaux of the Loire, it belongs to that precious category of gentleman's manor houses - sober, rooted, sincere - where the local blonde stone converses with the surrounding forest in an almost secret intimacy. What immediately sets Puymarteau apart is the coherence of its ensemble: a main building flanked by a polygonal tower housing a spiral staircase, two corbelled turrets set into the eastern facade, a balustraded terrace opening onto the ground floor and, below, a dovecote with a coat of arms that still bears witness to the rank of its former owners. The layout of the courtyard - manor house on one side, outbuildings on two other sides and a wall with a carriage gate on the fourth - provides the backdrop to an aristocratic rural lifestyle, the echoes of which can still be heard today. The experience of visiting the house is one of an authentic change of scenery. The crenellated porch that leads to the inner courtyard prepares visitors for an immersion in the Périgord Renaissance, before the eastern facade, pierced by mullioned windows and crowned by a dormer window with a semi-circular pediment, reveals all the sophistication of its patrons. Inside, the upstairs corridor, vaulted with a full barrel vault finely sculpted with fleurons in relief, is a piece of architecture rarely equalled in a dwelling of this apparent modesty. The setting adds to the magic of the place: Brantôme, nicknamed the "Venice of Périgord" for its canals and Benedictine abbey, offers a hinterland of meadows and oak forests that envelops Puymarteau in green and golden light according to the season. Photographers, lovers of rural heritage and history buffs will find this a destination of unsuspected wealth, far from the crowds.
Architecture
Château de Puymarteau is based on the classic layout of a Périgord manor house from the Renaissance period: a rectangular main building making up the bulk of the structure, flanked to the west by a polygonal tower containing a spiral staircase. This functional, hierarchical layout provides a particularly well-preserved east facade, preceded by a balustraded terrace accessible from the ground floor and framed by two corbelled turrets. The mullioned windows, arranged in superimposed registers, punctuate this elevation with Renaissance-like rigour, while a semi-circular pedimented dormer crowns the composition with a touch of Italianate classicism. The crenellated entrance porch to the inner courtyard is a reminder of the medieval heritage still present in the defensive imagination of the builders in 1565. Inside, the treatment of the first-floor corridor is the most remarkable feature: its semi-circular barrel vault, sculpted with fleurons in relief, is a work of carving and ornamentation of an unusual quality for a dwelling of this scale. The attention paid to the circulation spaces betrays a patron who was keen to display his culture and taste for the arts. Below the terrace, the dovecote with its coat of arms, preserved intact, bears witness to the seigneurial status of the property: the right to have a dovecote, reserved for the nobility under the Ancien Régime, was a jealously guarded privilege. The materials used are typical of the Périgord region: the honey-coloured local limestone gives the building that luminous warmth typical of the region's buildings.
Related Figures
Commanditaire anonyme de 1565 — noble périgourdin ayant achevé la construction du châteauArtisans maçons périgourdins du XVIe siècle — auteurs du couloir voûté aux fleurons sculptésPropriétaire du XVIIe siècle — responsable des agrandissements de la cour intérieurePierre de Bourdeille, dit Brantôme — chroniqueur et abbé de l'abbaye voisine, figure tutélaire de la noblesse périgourdine du XVIe siècle
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Château de Puymarteau located?
Château de Puymarteau is located in Brantôme, Dordogne department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
When was Château de Puymarteau built?
Château de Puymarteau dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Château de Puymarteau open to visitors?
Château de Puymarteau is currently closed to visitors.
